“Irving Berlin didn’t write ‘White Holiday’”

Maybe his name has something to do with his beliefs. After all, with a last name like “Winter”, his passion for spreading the “real” Christmas message runs deep.

Farm and Dairy reader John Winter shared a letter and pen with us recently. It’s the 16th year he has distributed the Christmas fact sheet, as he calls it, for free. We liked his sentiments so much, we thought we’d share it here:

Christmas Day is a federal legal holiday. The United States Congress made Christmas a federal legal holiday by a statute passed June 28, 1870.

The word ‘holiday’ has become the ‘one size fits all’ term to replace the word ‘Christmas.’ We see more ‘holiday’ lighting ceremonies, more ‘holiday’ sales, more ‘holiday’ decorations. It is as though Christmas is just one of many holidays at this time of year. To a certain extent, that is true, and yet a nationwide Gallup poll has provided the fact that 94% of Americans celebrate Christmas.

Rather than reject the use of the word “Christmas,” we should all be sensitive to the overwhelming majority of Americans who do celebrate Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Thanks, John, for the succinct, meaningful letter. You said it so well. We think the whole brouhaha about whether or not it’s “politically correct” to say “Merry Christmas,” is, well, just a bunch of baloney. Putting the “Christmas” — the “Christ — back in Christmas just makes a lot of sense for Christians.

Many of us were raised with foundations of faith, family and community. It’s a rock-solid foundation to have, and one we think many yearn to build for themselves in today’s “all-about-me” world

Wishing all of our readers and friends a very Merry Christmas!

Farm and Dairy Editor Susan Crowell has been with the paper since 1985, serving as its editor since 1989. Raised on a farm in Holmes County, she is a graduate of Kent State University.